Preferred Name
Preston Cook Morgan
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Date of Graduation
5-15-2025
Semester of Graduation
Spring
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Department of History
First Advisor
Emily Westkaemper
Abstract
After World War II, Virginian women’s organizations experienced increases in membership and in community influence. For the next decade, Virginian women in various non-partisan organizations would take intentional efforts to position women as activists of change, creating and training women for public and civic contributions. Organizational women began to see themselves as having growing responsibility for their community’s wellbeing. This study will analyze this growing grassroots organization movement by examining records from organizations like the Winchester Women’s Civic League, the women’s missionary societies of the First Baptist Church and Salem Lutheran Church, and Madison College. This study will analyze this growing grassroots organization movement by examining records from organizations like the Winchester Women’s Civic League, the women’s missionary societies of the First Baptist Church and Salem Lutheran Church, and Madison College. To analyze the organizations within this thesis, I examined archival records, physical meeting minutes, and full newspaper digital collections produced by these organizations from the years 1945 to 1955.
These women’s organizations and institutions showcase the attempts of Virginian women activists, including wives and homemakers, as well as career-oriented college women to see a new vision of their duties within a post war America. This study attempts to reveal the story of these women using various different organizations to train, educate, and equip the next generation of women activists with organizational leadership skills. During this process, new nation and globe spanning networks of women’s organizations formed through conventions and national collaborations. These networks introduced Virginian women to likeminded, driven women elsewhere helping them further develop successful activist techniques and organizational strategies.
Through careful analysis of these organization women’s efforts, this study attempts to add new light to the growing field of study that is women’s political and activist efforts from 1945 to 1955. Far from being willing participants in a so-called Feminine Mystique, these Virginian women, many of whom were homemakers and housewives, enacted various crusades for social change. These activist crusaders would work towards various social and civic goals. These missions ranged from spreading anti-communist ideology so as to protect homes and families or beginning a call-to-arms for women’s civic activism, voting, and participation in local governance.
